XR5 Owners: Advice & Experiences

[mondo_broady]

Originally Posted by shepv8

So when I entered this thread I made a fairly innocuos comment about people talking about power increases and negative effects on chassis dynamics. And what was the response..... offended people going on the assumption train . " sorry , but this is the type of comment made by somebody who has never driven an XR5 " . ( you dont know what your talking about etc etc etc ). Unfortunately I had driven both stock and modded XR5's.
The tone of the thread instantly went from informative to people getting all defensive because their ride has been criticised and I guess when it comes to cars , a mans very being is on the line.....or so it would seem.
I dont know how many times I have written in this thread that these cars are great and the best choice for an everyday car so Im not going to bother this time because you guys seem intent on digging your heels in.
look, a bloke asked for peoples experiences and opinions on the XR5. After a few posts the inevitable comments about these cars surprising V8's at the lights surfaced. No biggie , but the guys are talking about modded/tuned cars embarrasing V8's , not stock cars. When you pump more power through the front wheels of a stock XR5 you will increase torquesteer. You cannot avoid this fact. Now , maybe to die hard fans such as yourself the increased torqusteer isnt a big enough negative to spoil your experience of driving the car, just like most of us V8 drivers like to pretend our front heavy cars dont understeer like pigs when pushed hard. But each car has its inherent design limitations. If you had of said from the outset, Yes increasing output increases torqusteer but not enough to make the car a pain in the a@#se and its still enjoyable to drive , this thread wouldnt be this long and the original poster would be better informed......Oh , and on the subject of Quaifes,traction and torqusteer are directly ( although not solely ) related.....but I guess you already knew that

hmmm... i already posted a reply once but must have stuffed it up as it ain't here??

you make some good points, the most valid being that this discussion has deviated from what the OP was about. in light of that i will STFU.

one thing though about your "from the outset" comment, that's pretty much what i did.

anyway... i see you live near the pass?? i'm not far away myself. had a run down this arvo after a long run checking potential cruise routes... best bit of road in the district.

[shepv8]

Originally Posted by mondo_broady

hmmm... i already posted a reply once but must have stuffed it up as it ain't here??

you make some good points, the most valid being that this discussion has deviated from what the OP was about. in light of that i will STFU.

one thing though about your "from the outset" comment, that's pretty much what i did.

anyway... i see you live near the pass?? i'm not far away myself. had a run down this arvo after a long run checking potential cruise routes... best bit of road in the district.

trouble with the pass is, its so good that everyone wants a piece of it. Theres way too much traffic on it, and on sundays its chaotic ( but entertaining) . Sunday is basically motorbike day up there but before 10 on a sat morning you can get a pretty good run up there. Only rule with the pass is - leave a fair bit in reserve " just in case" , the people going in the other direction are doing the exact same thing as you and if they run wide there arent a lot of options.....

[mondo_broady]

i went up jamberoo for that reason today. had the whole thing to myself... also a run up woodhill mountain from berry into the valley... anyway, enough OT stuff from me already...

[entheos]

Originally Posted by shepv8

I live 2 mins from maquarie pass. I shall keep my eyes open for all these super fast XR5's...probably be too far ahead of me to see them though....haha, kidding. Maquarie pass is really WRX/evo country. The AWD really helps out of the climbing tight corners, Its a great piece of road to really test a cars performance although with the amount of traffic, particularly suicidal motorbikes its not the best place to have a fang.

Yep...Mac Pass....an epic piece of road...I agree these are the times that an AWD comes into it's own....however, THIS is where the quaife makes it's stand...on a high powered FWD vehicle, the hill climbs and the twisties and all that stuff is where the Quaife is the benchmark for mods. I know plenty of guys who would hold at bay and pass an AWD in a similarly powered FWD (irrespective of the vehicle), but with the Quaife LSD...it would be a totally different story....it's in situations like the pass that it allows the power to actually be delivered to the ground and not just slip and slide all over the place and be pointing the wheels one way and the car just planing straight ahead...lol...done that a couple of times in my XR5 when I first had it. But honestly from having driven a quaifed one and then mine with something like the Toyo R888's there's A LOT to be said about very sticky tyres...and when I say sticky, i mean driveshaft shattering sticky...and they come with a bonus monorail sound ALL the time. ha ha.

Back OT. Yeah it was great to meet you Dan...for those who haven't met Dan, and I've only met him for a grand total of 5 minutes now, when he says he will miss the cougar he means it...ha ha...I could tell in about 3 seconds while he was talking about it...My advice Dan...the first weekend you have with the 5, take the missus up to the hunter and go via Putty rd...spend the night at a nice place up there, visit some wineries, cruise home on the freeway and back to work on monday...and you will have long forgotten about the cougar as you head out of windsor. ;)

sounds like the perfect weekend away to me.

Groomy

[melbzetec]

I can certainly support that a Quaife, a decent suspension, and a set of these...



makes a world of difference.....and that's in my humble NA old school Zetec Focus!

[photn]

Hey Steve,

whats the wear rating on those tyres?

[Dshibi]

Originally Posted by entheos

Back OT. Yeah it was great to meet you Dan...for those who haven't met Dan, and I've only met him for a grand total of 5 minutes now, when he says he will miss the cougar he means it...ha ha...I could tell in about 3 seconds while he was talking about it...My advice Dan...the first weekend you have with the 5, take the missus up to the hunter and go via Putty rd...spend the night at a nice place up there, visit some wineries, cruise home on the freeway and back to work on monday...and you will have long forgotten about the cougar as you head out of windsor. ;)

sounds like the perfect weekend away to me.

Groomy

Bahahah Thanks Groomy! Possibly my last weekend with the Cougar so time for some TLC.

Love the weekend away idea as well - definitely a possibility worth exploring!

Cheers,

Dan

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by shepv8

trouble with the pass is, its so good that everyone wants a piece of it.

Except for the bits over the edge. Might be fun on a quadie for the thrill seekers